A Stranger at Green Knowe is emotionally the most complex of the Green Knowe books. Like the others, it has a strong love of place, but for two of the characters, this is as much a love for places lost as it is for Green Knowe itself.
Ping, the “displaced child” from The River at Green Knowe, has been invited back. Just before going, he visits the zoo with the other children from the orphanage/refugee home. There, he sees Hanno, a beautiful gorilla who fascinates him with his nobility. Ping also quickly comes to identify with the gorilla as someone who, like himself, is displaced and forced to live in an impersonal, concrete environment with little hope of change. Consequently, Ping is delighted when the gorilla escapes and attempts to offer him sanctuary in the bamboo grove of Green Knowe, even as searchers close in.
The beauties of Green Know remain important, but the glory is tinged with sadness as the central characters remember their previous homes. Both Ping and Hanno are from forests far away from the English country house they visit. The jungles where Hanno lived his early life are every bit as lavishly described as the beauties of Green Knowe in the morning, and it is clear that Hanno has lost a wonderful home. Ping’s memories are more fragmented as he was very young when he left his home, but, again, the love for and the beauty of these places is clear, and it is heartbreaking, because neither Hanno nor Ping will be able to return.
I admire Boston’s ability to create a friendship between two species. Hanno and Ping form a strong bond and, though I suspect she over-anthropomorphizes Hanno, he still remains a gorilla rather than a strange-looking human. I also admire her ability to confront an insoluble dilemma: Hanno really cannot remain at Green Know forever, and Ping and the zoo keeper really both do want the best for him, and, in many ways, they are both right in their conclusions.
All of the above is not to say it is a hopeless book: There is true friendship, great beauty, and the chance for a new home amidst the sorrow. All of the books show a love for nature in its many forms, and in Hanno, Boston finds its most eloquent representative.